News round-up October 2018

New AD plant signs deal; Council in trade waste crackdown; Urbaser gets council contracts; Cycle used to support recycling;

Glasgow to become ‘Scotland’s first Circular City’

Glasgow City Council is to publish Scotland’s first Circular Economy Route Map with a target for 15% of city homes to be powered by renewable energy

The city pledged to reduces the amount of waste produced and reuse rather than dump any waste is does generate.

Cllr Susan Aitken said: “Our Route Map will point a way to building better homes and communities, reducing food insecurity and playing our part in dealing with the world’s addiction to single use plastic.”

Press release

New AD plant signs deal

food waste1

Gateshead waste firm Gap Group North East is expanding its food waste collection work with a new long-term supply agreement with an anaerobic digestion facility in the town.

It is due to open in late 2019. The company has also invested £5.7m in a fridge recycling facility due to open next month.

Press release

Eunomia reuseable cup trial results

Consultancy Eunomia has estimated that its Zero Waste Cups took an 11% market share of hot drinks consumed at the RWM exhibition in September.

It offered a 25p discount to customers buying hot drinks who presented a reusable cup, which it provided for a £1 deposit. Cups such as that used by Eunomia chairman Dominic Hogg (pictured) were supplied by Bockatech in partnership with Borealis. Unclaimed deposits are being donated to Marine Conservation Philippines,

Press release

Council in trade waste crackdown

North Lincolnshire Council has urged people to report businesses that use town centre litter bins to illegally dispose of trade waste. The council has conducted a clean-up blitz in Scunthorpe town centre with a new cleaning hit-squad.

Press release

Urbaser gets council contracts

Tunbridge Wells Borough Council and Tonbridge & Malling Borough Council have awarded an eight-year contract for a new recycling and waste collection and street cleansing service to Urbaser Ltd, a resource and waste management company.

The new contract, which will begin on 30 March 2019 in Tunbridge Wells and on 1 March 2019 in Tonbridge and Malling, will see Urbaser Ltd providing a recycling service to 101,000 homes as well as enhanced street cleansing services across both boroughs.

Press release

Cycle used to support recycling

cromwell polythene volunteers

Cromwell Polythene is supporting a new recycling on the go initiative for Leeds city centre. The company will provide more than 20,000 bags made from recycled material to support the environmental charity Hubbub compliance scheme, Ecosurety, 24 brands and retailers and the city council to increase the recycling of food and drinks packaging.

Staff used the Re-cycler, a cargo bike that toured the city to promote the project.

Press release

Council takes Eunomia award

Eunomia Powys award

Powys County Council has been awarded the Eunomia Recycling Carbon Index trophy for the second year running for being the best recycler in England, Wales and Northern Ireland in terms of the greenhouse gas emissions saved through its efforts.

The council had the highest saving of 118kg of CO2 per person, with 2014-15 winner Cheshire West & Chester second at 111kg. Leader Phyl Davies (left) accepted the trophy from Eunomia principal consultant Peter Jones.

Press release

Viridor reports on its sustainability

Viridor has released its 2018 Sustainability Report, drawing on the UN’s Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) as its benchmark for defining performance.

Dan Cooke (pictured), group head of sustainability for parent company Pennon, said: “Our business is about bringing resources to life. We take our responsibilities towards the environment and to wider communities seriously and aim to ensure that we can demonstrate progress towards sustainability in everything we do.”

Press release

Ward looks to boost exports with £6m HSBC loan

East Midlands ferrous recycling specialists Ward has secured a £6m finance package from HSBC UK to support its growth strategy in the UK and overseas.

Ward, which has sites in Swadlincote, Ilkeston, Chesterfield and Immingham, is using the funding at its new deep-sea dock facility, enable the purchase of a new, 40-foot metal-processing plant which prepares the metal before it is exported overseas and relocate its 350-strong team to new offices. An additional uplift in the company’s trade line will help the business export more recycled metal to its existing markets in India, Pakistan and the Far East.

Joint managing director David Ward said: “The continued support from HSBC UK has enabled our business to realise its growth ambitions, open up new revenue streams and better serve our customers.”

Press release

Post a pouch today

little freddie

Organic baby and toddler food company Little Freddie and recycling specialist firm, Enval have launched a zero waste to landfill scheme forpouches. The initiative encourages consumers to send their used pouches to Enval in a prepaid envelope, where Enval will use its unique technology to recycle each component of the pouch into materials that can go back into circulation and be used again.

It comes as part of the Little Freddie’s ‘Big Green Plan’ to improve the environmental impact of its great tasting baby food.

The brand will be piloting the scheme for all orders taken through its website, with the aim of taking it to retail next year. Consumers can also request the post back envelope from Little Freddie.

Press release

Rogue traders targeted in Wales

wales crack down waste carrier 2

Natural Resources Wales (NRW) has played its part in National Rogue Traders Week, held between 8 and 12 October.

The crackdown was part of a national campaign to take action against and raise awareness of waste crime. NRW enforcement officers joined colleagues from other organisations across North Wales to check waste was being transported and dealt with legally.

One hundred and fifty-nine waste carrying vehicles were stopped over the three-day operation. Of these, seven were found to be operating illegally, action is being taken and some given a deadline to obtain the necessary licence.

Safety accreditation for Total

It said it was among the few UK companies in any sector to have done so since the standard was introduced in April.

Press release

Cafes offer repair skills

North London Waste Authority is launching a 21 free pop-up Repair Cafés to help residents breathe new life into items they would normally throw away.

It said nearly 22m damaged small items of furniture, more than 11,000 bicycles and 28m toys are discarded each year, with even those taken to recycling centres been thrown in with residual waste.The cafes will offer refreshments and have repair specialists on hand to train residents in mending items.

Press release

Fire-hit facility replaced

Wiser Recycling has opened an approved authorised treatment facility in Thetford. It provides full services for WEEE in a 30,000 square feet premises with an extensive testing and repair area. It replaces a site damaged by fire at St Ives, Cambridgeshire.

Press release

Leeds tests ‘on the go’ measures

Bubble-blowing bins, recycling reward machines, a huge art installation and ‘Re-Cycler’ recycling collection bikes will appear across Leeds city centre this week as part of #LeedsByExample – which is testing ways to improve rates of recycling on the go.

Environmental behaviour change charity Hubbub and compliance scheme Ecosurety will pilot new recycling facilities for plastic, cans and paper cups on the streets, in local offices, shopping centres, universities and transport hubs for six months.

Press release

Crisp maker launches packet recycling

Walkers is set to launch the UK’s first nationwide recycling scheme for crisp packets.The company was recently subjected to a campaign that urged people to post empty packets to its headquarters. People will be encouraged to either drop packets at public collection points or post them free to TerraCycle for recycling.

PVC-U recycler rebrands

It acquired Merritt Plastics’ 60,000 square feet Ilkeston recycling plant in 2009 and has invested more than £6m in the facility, now handling some million end-of-life frames a year.

Press release

China quality drive sees MRF investment

Viridor has invested £3.7m in enhanced paper purity and fire protection systems at its Crayford MRF near Dartford.

The facility MRF receives 300,000 tonnes of co-mingled content from 28 local authorities each year.

Viridor head of recycling assets Colin Richardson the plant’s paper lines will target contamination levels within the fibre outputs in order to meet stricter standards in China.

Press release

Contract win for Viridor

Safestore Viridor

Viridor has won a two-year waste management contract with Safestore, covering its 120 self-storage locations. The company had decided to move away from multiple waste management providers to a centralised single contract with one provider.

Press release

Birthday for magnets firm

Master Magnets is celebrating its 40th anniversary, now under the ownership of Bunting Magnetics. Originally focussed on the minerals industry, the company later branched into recycling with the Overband Magnet. In 2003, Master Magnets acquired Integrated Recycling Systems.

Press release

Leeds drivers pay with plastic bottles

Car park operator, CitiPark, has launched a plastic bottle recycling initiative at the Merrion Centre, Leeds, Anyone paying for parking there in October can pay with plastic bottles which will then be recycled into usable items.

Press release

Co-op offers compostable bags

Retailer the Co-op and bioplastics firm Novamont have launched a collaboration aimed at supplying a new kind of compostable carrier bag, as an alternative to traditional ones.

Lightweight compostable carrier bags, which can be used to carry shopping home and then have a secondary use as food waste caddy liners, will be provided to almost 1,400 Co-op food stores, in areas where they are accepted in food waste collections.

Press release

Eight crews tackle recycling blaze

October began with eight firefighting crews called to a fire at a Cambridgeshire County Council recycling centre at Milton, where a large amount of household waste was on fire. People living nearby were warned to keep doors and windows closed due to smoke.

BBC report

Iceland calls for plastics action

Food retailer Iceland’s head of packaging Ian Schofield has told Scotland’s Sunday National newspaper that urgent action is needed to simplify recycling and give consumers confidence about where their plastic waste goes. He said the chain’s pledge to remove plastic packaging in the next five years must be supported by more clarity around recycling from government and local authorities.

Sunday National report

Turbine refurb centre opens

Scottish firm Renewable Parts’ has opened a refurbishment centre in Argyll to deal with wind turbines. It said this would provide capability for the refurbishment of unserviceable material to allow owners to significantly reduce operating and life-cycle costs.

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